Experience authentic Japanese Raku ware with this Sasaki Shoraku Aka-Raku Tea Bowl. This Red Raku Chawan serves as a Kyoto Raku Ware Masterwork and Daitoku-ji Inscribed Tea Bowl, featuring Hand Shaped Raku Art and Zen Tea Culture—a must-have for any Art Collector seeking Japanese Tea Bowls and Wabi Sabi Ceramics.
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🔹 [ BASIC DETAILS ]
• Artist: Sasaki Shoraku (佐々木松楽) • Mei (Poetic Name): Tokiwa (常盤) — "Eternal / Everlasting" • Inscribed by: Takahashi Etsudo (高橋悦道), former Daitoku-ji monk • Type: Aka-Raku Chawan (赤楽茶碗) • Technique: Aka-Raku (red Raku) — hand-shaped, low-fired with lead glaze • Era: Heisei period • Origin: Kyoto, Japan • Dimensions: H approx. 8.3 cm × Dia approx. 11 cm × Foot approx. 5 cm • Box: Yohosan tomobako (四方桟共箱) with cloth wrapper and pamphlet • Condition: Excellent
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🔹 [ CULTURAL & ARTISTIC INSIGHT ]
Raku ware holds a foundational place in the history of chanoyu. Originating in sixteenth-century Kyoto under the patronage of tea master Sen no Rikyu, Raku represents the most direct expression of the wabi aesthetic in ceramics — each bowl hand-shaped rather than thrown, fired individually at low temperature, and pulled from the kiln while still glowing. The Sasaki Shoraku workshop continues this Kyoto Raku tradition with deep respect for the methods and spirit of the founding lineage.
Aka-Raku (red Raku) achieves its distinctive warm palette through oxidation firing. The lead-based glaze, when exposed to oxygen during cooling, develops the characteristic coral and orange-red tones that distinguish it from the carbon-black of Kuro-Raku. The naming of a tea bowl — the granting of a mei — elevates the vessel from craft object to participant in the tea gathering, giving it an identity that resonates across each use.
*"The name outlasts the ceremony — Tokiwa, eternal, spoken once and carried forward."*
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🔹 [ DEEP-DIVE COMMENTARY ]
**Raku Tradition**: Raku ware was created by Chojiro, the first Raku master, under Sen no Rikyu's guidance in the late sixteenth century. The technique — hand-forming, individual firing, rapid cooling — produces bowls of radical simplicity. The Sasaki Shoraku workshop in Kyoto carries this tradition forward, producing both aka (red) and kuro (black) Raku for tea practitioners across Japan.
**Surface Character**: This bowl embodies the quiet confidence of Shoraku's Aka-Raku practice. The warm coral-orange-red glaze envelops the hand-shaped form with a depth that shifts under changing light — areas of brighter warmth giving way to darker smoke marks (keshiki) at the rim and in streaks across the body. These traces of fire and atmosphere are not flaws but the life of the bowl.
**The Mei Tokiwa**: The poetic name Tokiwa (常盤) — meaning eternal, everlasting — was granted and inscribed on the tomobako by Takahashi Etsudo, a senior monk of Daitoku-ji, the Zen temple most intimately connected with the development of tea culture. This inscription places the bowl within the living continuum of tea practice and Zen sensibility.
**Box and Provenance**: The yohosan (four-sided bar) box construction, cloth wrapper, and accompanying pamphlet confirm the bowl's formal presentation. The box lid interior reads "松楽造 赤楽茶碗 銘 常盤" with "前大徳寺 高橋悦道" monk inscription.
🔹 [ SHIPPING & PACKAGING ] • Dispatch: Within 1-6 business days • Carrier: Japan Post EMS / UPS (with tracking) • Packaging: Carefully wrapped with protective materials
*Coral warmth held in the hand — a name given by Zen, carried forward by fire.*
